What an Eventure!

We are very fortunate this week to be joined by Dr Jan Macvarish, the FSU’s Education and Events Director. October is always jam-packed with events, so we take the opportunity to hear Jan’s perspective on the role that events play in the life of the FSU and the meaningful difference that they make to our members. The ‘Battle of Ideas’, staged over the weekend of 28^th and 29^th October, is undeniably one of the flag ship moments in our annual free speech calendar and FSU members can grab discount tickets (20% off!) from the FSU’s events page. Indeed, as Ben says, the festival is an ‘embarrassment of riches’ with so many great speakers and topics for delegates to choose from. Importantly, though, we are also expanding our FSU events offering across the UK – as Jan makes clear, we are certainly not all about London. During the second half of today’s discussion, we come back to the difficult and tragic events unfolding in the Middle East and explore some of the themes raised by the statement released by Toby Young last week. There is no doubt that we are all struggling to pick our way through the various issues, but what we are sure of is that free speech, alongside the other great enlightenment values, remain essential tools to light the way ahead.